The munchkin (I'm still calling her that, btw) has been away on a school trip all week, leaving me to ramble about the house by myself all day. It's an interesting preview of what it's going to be like when she goes away to college. In only six years. *heart flutter* Empty nest syndrome here I come.

All this peace and quiet has given me lots of time to write and I've been taking advantage of it. I've got five solid chapters of the X-Men fic so far, but then I got stuck on a boring but necessary exposition dump in chapter six that I've got to get through somehow (or figure out a way around) and started to falter a bit.

But instead of just giving up (which is my usual M.O.) I started browsing through all the old, unfinished fics languishing on my hard drive. And then I got inspired to dive back into this old Angel fic I found. I think I actually started writing this thing in 2005 or some shit, and it was a tangled mess of revisions because every time I've gone back to it over the years I've taken a slightly different tack. But the last couple of days I've managed to sift through it all and mold it into a cohesive story and actually finish writing the damn thing. That's right, I FINISHED something. This is huge for me, because I am not so good with the finishing. Well, I'm about a paragraph short of being finished. I've written to the end of the story, but I still need to come up with those last few lines that tie it up in a nice bow and put it to bed, if you know what I mean. And somehow they're just not coming to me, which makes me worry that it means there's something wrong with the story. I also need to go through and do one final pass of revisions, which, since the thing is almost 13,000 words, is gonna take some time. And I've got an idea for two follow-up fics, one of which is a Twilight parody. Unfortunately, I think I might actually have to, you know, read Twilight in order to parody it properly, and I'm not sure I'm willing to do that.

Funny how, of all the fandoms I've dabbled in over the years, the one I never seem to get tired of writing is Angel. It's like my fic comfort food. Maybe because the first writing I ever felt proud of, like I'd actually managed to do something good, was an Angel fic. It's like it opened to the door to everything I've written since.

Anyway, speaking of fandom, the new TV season (note to self: SET DVRs!) is upon us and I have to say, I'm not feeling especially optimistic about any of it. There aren't any new shows that sound like they're going to be awesome. There's usually at least one or two shows that surprise me by turning out to be good, so I'm curious to see what, if any, that will be this year.

I have at least found one new show I love: Terriers on FX. It's a kind of a Rockford Files homage with gruffly lovable characters and vaguely Whedonesque banter. It actually reminds me a bit of Firefly, if Firefly had been set in a beach town instead of on a spaceship. You know what it is? It's Firefly crossed with Psych! Only slightly gritter, 'cause it is FX, after all. And hey, look, Tim Minear is an exec producer! Plus, I'm not ashamed to admit that I have a longstanding crush on Donal Logue. He's on my "No Really, I'd Totally Hit That" List, along with Eddie Izzard and Oliver Platt. Me likes the funny boys.

The only returning shows I'm really excited about are my three favorites from last season: Community, Cougartown, and Justified. I worry that Community and Cougartown aren't going to make it to season three, so I'm going to have to enjoy them while I still can. Seriously, ya'll, if you're not watching these two FANTASTIC comedies, what is WRONG with you? Can I get a what what? HOLLA!

West Wing was the fandom that meant the most to me and it's the show that inspired me to start writing in the first place, so that's obviously huge to me. But I was never happy with the WW fics I wrote. Writing them helped me become a better writer, but looking back on them they were embarrassingly amateur. Which is why I don't have them archived on LJ or AO3.

I'm with you on not being excited about anything this season. I've only read the WB scripts, and the only pilots I've seen were the ones I caught the couple of nights I worked the Paley Fall Preview last week. Lone Star might shake out to be a better show (pilots usually aren't good) but the lead actor is going to be the next Clooney (and you know how much I love me some Clooney). He's charming and probably worth watching the show just for him. I was disappointed in Running Wilde, and I was completely surprised, charmed, and dare I say, misty-eyed by the end of Raising Hope. Of the stuff I've seen/read, it is the best show of the new season, and I'm shocked to hear myself saying that.

Also, on the writing...not having that last paragraph doesn't mean there's something wrong with the story. It can easily be the opposite, it's good and well-written so you don't have the ending to do it justice just yet. :)

That makes me feel better. It's funny, because usually the endings just come to me, like they're writing themselves. I don't know how to deal with one that doesn't. Maybe I'll think of something while I'm doing the revisions. Or while I'm writing something else.